According to the World Health Organisation, 41 countries or territories have reported transmission of Zika within their borders since a year ago, and nine have reported an increase in Guillain-Barre cases.
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Top Bay Area health professionals gathered at a symposium to share information on the Zika virus, which may cause birth defects, including abnormally small heads and vision problems.
People traveling to warm climates for spring break should take precautions to avoid exposure to the Zika virus that’s active now in tropical climates around the globe.
According to the CDC, the virus also has been reported in at least 31 other states. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a news briefing today that it will be hard for vaccine trials to move forward to subsequent stages unless Congress grants the funds needed to fight the disease.
Suspected cases of microcephaly counted before the change, but with measurements beyond the new limits, will continue to be investigated until they are either confirmed or ruled out, the ministry added. A breed of the bug common to North Texas, the Aedes mosquito, can transmit the virus, increasing the likelihood that it could be transmitted to pregnant women.
A research team led by Patrícia Brasil, MD, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro enrolled and prospectively followed 88 pregnant women presenting with a Zika-suspected rash that had developed within the prior five days. However, in 2015, Brazilian authorities linked an outbreak of Zika with a sharp rise in the number of babies born with microcephaly that year.
WHO Director-General Doctor Margaret Chan said while the link between microcephaly, a severe deformation of the brain among newborns, has not yet been completely confirmed there are multiple health concerns associated to the Zika virus.
Although 80 percent of cases do not result in any symptoms, World Health Organization officials estimate that 1.5 million people have been infected in Brazil through the end of last month.
A new study from Brazil asserts that Zika is definitely linked to birth defects, and microcephaly may be “only the tip of the iceberg”.
“There’s been a fair amount of talk already that the CDC travel guidelines ought to be much firmer, much more prescriptive”, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, who also serves on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
That advice – as well as travel guidance for would-be fathers – could change as researchers learn more about how long Zika lasts in semen of infected men.
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And research in Puerto Rico on dengue – another mosquito-borne illness that has a large impact on the island – is at a standstill, as the workers turn their attention to Zika, he said.
